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GM's Barra, Valukas face new questioning by House

WASHINGTON — General Motors CEO Mary Barra will appear again before a U.S. House panel investigating the recall of 2.6 million vehicles for defective ignition switches next Wednesday, this time to answer

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GM's Barra, Valukas face new questioning by House

Todd Spangler , Detroit Free Press
4:49 p.m. EDT June 11, 2014

GM CEO Mary Barra testifies before a U.S. House panel April. She will be back before the panel next week to be questioned about the company's report on its actions leading the switch recall along with the report's author, outside lawyer Anton Valukas.(Photo: AP)

WASHINGTON — General Motors CEO Mary Barra will appear again before a U.S. House panel investigating the recall of 2.6 million vehicles for defective ignition switches next Wednesday, this time to answer questions about an internal report which blamed GM's response on a dysfunctional corporate culture.

The only other witness before the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is expected to be former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, whose team at law firm Jenner & Block reviewed millions of documents and interviewed more than 200 people for a 325-page report on the deadly defect, its history and why it wasn't addressed sooner. It was released last week.

Barra, who fired 15 GM employees in the wake of the report, called the report's findings "deeply troubling." Valukas' team found evidence that some GM workers knew of the defective ignition switches -- which GM later learned could disable air bags in the affected vehicles -- as long as 11 years ago, but it took until this year for the company to order a recall.

"Ms. Barra wants to return to Congress and update (the committee) on the actions GM is taking in response to the ignition switch recall," said GM spokesman Greg Martin. "As outlined by Ms. Barra last week, these efforts include fixing the failures identified in the Valukas report, building a culture centered on safety, quality and excellence, and doing what's right for victims and their families."

GM has said 13 people have died in 42 crashes tied to the defect; safety advocates argue the number could be much higher.

Valukas' report uncovered a corporate culture that lacked accountability and discouraged the sharing of bad news, with various bits of information compiled by legal, engineering and safety teams over the years, but no action taken to fix the problem for years.

In early April, Barra was called before both House and Senate committees to answer questions about the defect and why it took more than a decade to identify. At the time, she deferred answering many questions until Valukas, who was brought in by GM, completed his report.

"Earlier this year, Ms. Barra testified that she would not be able to answer certain questions until the company's internal investigation was complete. Next week we will have the chance to get those answers and compare the company's findings to our own," said U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, who chairs the full Energy and Commerce Committee, and subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa., in a statement.

The committee has received more than a million pages of documents from GM since beginning its investigation, as well as 15,000 pages from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has been asked to fully explain why it didn't respond sooner as well.

"Mr. Valukas' exhaustive report revealed disturbing truths about GM's systemic and cultural failures that allowed this problem to go undiagnosed for over a decade, but many questions remain unanswered about the recalls and resulting changes within the company. This testimony by Barra and Valukas is a critical step in our ongoing investigation," Upton and Murphy said in their statement.

A Senate consumer protection subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is also expected to call a second hearing this summer.

In February GM ordered the initial recall involving Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and similar cars to repair an ignitron switch that can be inadvertently jostled out of position, potentially disabling the vehicles' air bags in the event of a crash.

Federal regulators have already fined GM $35 million for not turning over information considered relevant to the defect sooner. This week, NHTSA also confirmed that GM will be fined $420,000 for not turning over additional information requested until the Valukas report was concluded last week.